How To Pray?

Wed, 25/12/2013

Boone, North Carolina

It struck me when the name David was mentioned, is there any meaning to the name David in English or in Hebrew? What does David mean? (Audience say: David means The King of Wisdom)In Sanskrit David, Dev-vith means one who knows God. That’s the Sanskrit meaning of David. Dev-vith becomes David. Vith means to know.

God has no form but he is in all forms. God has no eyes but he is watching everything all the time. God has no ears but he listens to you even before a thought arises. Even before you need to speak it out, he already listens to you. God doesn’t have to speak in a language, he conveys the feeling directly.

Let our life be like a Christmas tree. Whether in winter or summer, fall or spring, the Christmas tree remains the same. So in life in every situation, keep yourself green! The Christmas trees bears gifts for everybody. All that you are given in life is for everyone. So serve, smile and celebrate!

What happens when you hear knowledge is, your brain processes it and then you understand. Words get into your ears, then it makes sense and then you understand it. God doesn’t have to do that. There is no speech, but he gives you a direct understanding. Isn’t that beautiful?

There is a beautiful name in Sanskrit called Virupaksha, which means eyes without a form. He looks at everybody without eyes.Aksha means eyes, virupa means no form; formless eyes, that is, awareness; that presence which brings the awareness.When you close your eyes, what do you feel? You feel awareness right? The knowingness. So that is Virupaksha. That is the Shiva Tattva, that is the Divinity.Shiva means one who has no eyes but sees everything. There is no form but still no form can exist without him; he is in every form. This is so beautiful!

Everything is giving you a message. The Christmas tree is telling you, 'Be like a Christmas tree, evergreen'.Let our life be like a Christmas tree (which means being equanimous). Whether in winter or summer, fall or spring, the Christmas tree remains the same. So in life, in every situation, keep yourself green!The Christmas trees bears gifts for everybody. All that you are given in life is for everyone. Any gift you possess is not for you, it’s for the world. All your talents, all that you have been bestowed with, it is all meant to help others. So serve, smile and celebrate!

This is the message of Jesus Christ: Find love within and all around.

You can be in two positions. One is, you’re able to live knowledge.When you’re able to live the knowledge, don’t be proud that you are able to live it. Know that you are blessed to be living the knowledge; you are blessed to be wise. When you recognize you are wise, see that your recognition of being wise or perfect doesn’t bring arrogance or ego in you. Humility should be there.You may be a better speaker, a better organizer, a better person in many ways, don’t let that knowledge of your being better than anyone else make you stiff, hard and arrogant.

When you don’t have that quality. Suppose you feel that you have a very weak resolve, very weak will power, you don’t have talent, you’re unable to live wisdom and you’re succumbing to old habits and you feel utterly weak or helpless, then you pray, ‘Oh my God, I cannot! Only you help me out of this mess!’Humility and gratefulness when you have wisdom, and in the lack of it, feeling the pain and being prayerful. I don’t see any third option. If there is some, tell me. I would like to know.

So be prayerful. When you recognize your weakness and feel the pain of it, then you become prayerful. And when you feel powerful with knowledge, be grateful, then the strength of your wisdom becomes many fold. When you feel powerful, strong and grateful then your strength increases many fold.Life is a swing between these two things, and when the swing has stopped, that’s it, you’re liberated from life! There is no more swing and you can declare 'I am liberated. I am free'. Nobody needs to give you a certificate!

Every moment of helplessness, weakness leads you to prayer and the prayer keeps you out of negativity, and keeps you from falling deep down into depression. Otherwise whenever you recognize your helplessness that is when you get depressed. Isn’t it?When do you get depressed? When you know the knowledge and you are unable to live it. Now don’t get depressed. Instead of falling into depression, be prayerful.

When you’re able to live theknowledge, don’t be proud.Humility should be there.When you don’t have thatquality and you are unable tolive the wisdom, and you feelweak, then you pray, ‘Oh myGod, I cannot! Only you helpme out of this mess!’Humility and gratefulness when you have wisdom, and in the lack of it, feeling the pain and being prayerful.

That is the whole message of Jesus; be prayerful.How to pray? Then he showed to pray. He prayed even in the last moment when he was crucified. He felt helpless and said, 'Oh father, have you forsaken me?' That feeling of helplessness; even God has forsaken me! But immediately that turned into prayer. Forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.He felt utterly helpless at that moment. Spirit is willing, but flesh is weak. ‘God has forsaken me, let alone my disciples!’That was an incident where all the disciples had forsaken the Master. Everyone ran away. See how much pain he would have had at that time. Everybody had forsaken him! But that utter helplessness immediately turned into prayerfulness.

So, remember these two situations: Gratefulness when you feel strong, and when you feel weak, prayerfulness, and not getting angry.When you are powerful you don’t feel angry. When do you get angry? When you feel weak, and helpless. That is when you feel angry and frustrated. You feel like banging yourself. You don’t know where to go, what to do. That moment is when you can melt into prayer.

If you look back and see, the days when you felt very powerful, you never got angry, you never got upset. If someone does something, you feel, ‘This is nothing, I can take care of it. Oh, come on, it's an ant on an elephant's foot. I don’t mind it!’But when you’re upset, when you feel you are helpless and weak, you get angry, agitated, and feel like banging your head. You cry! All these extreme emotions come when you feel helpless. When you feel, ‘I can’t do anything’, at that time when you feel that way, it is the most powerful moment for it to become a prayer.You don’t know what power prayer has. Prayerfulness brings you total power. It completes the circle. One who prays and one to whom he is praying becomes one in prayer. It turns everything around. It is such an amazing phenomenon, such a mechanics of the consciousness. Very interesting!

Jesus faced both these situations. When he went to the temple to throw out the vendors, he felt absolutely powerful. When he was giving knowledge, he was absolutely powerful.At some time he felt absolutely helpless and weak because he could not do what he wanted to do. He could not change the society the way he wanted. He could not make people understand what he was to communicate to them. He told them in many ways, in many stories, still people wouldn’t get it.Just imagine if you’re a teacher and you’re giving some great knowledge, and they are asking some very silly questions; should I breathe through my nose, or my mouth, or my ears.You will say, 'My God! I taught you breathing exercises for so long and still you ask where my tongue should be!’

A similar situation was felt by Jesus. His close disciples kept doubting him for a very long time. St. Thomas was one of them.If you tell someone several times, ‘The kitchen is there and the food is ready. If you don’t believe me, you go and see for yourself.’ This is exactly what Jesus said, ‘If you don’t believe what I am saying, you ask someone else.’

Actually Jesus was not born on Christmas day. How many of you don’t know this fact? Christmas is not his birthday. Jesus was born in March, he is pieces. That is why Christianity had the symbol of two fishes. He was born in that month because the immaculate conception was in June. Jesus was not a premature baby born 6 months after conception.

Actually like Lord Buddha, Jesus' birth and resurrection was almost at the same time. Do you know Buddha was born, got enlightened and died on the same day? That is on Buddha Poornima. A very similar thing happened with Jesus. He was born in March and around the same time he was crucified. Just a week’s difference may be. That’s all. This is very interesting.

How to pray? Jesus showed us how topray. He prayed even inthe last moment when hewas crucified. He felt helplessand said, 'Oh father, have youforsaken me?'That feeling of helplessness;even God has forsaken me!But immediately that turnedinto prayer. Forgive them forthey don’t know what theyare doing.

You must know that it is not the personality, it is the message, it is the knowledge that is most important. We are all here and we all will go one day, but what we give to this world will remain in the world. So what we should take home is, how can I be useful, what good things can I do as long as I am on this planet.

This one thought, if it pops up even once a week, life will be different. Otherwise we are so engrossed in our routine and in small things.Routine eats your life away. Somewhere we need to wake up. Even few hours of wakefulness, ‘I’ve come to this planet for a cause, let me do something good here’, this will bring juice in life. Otherwise routine can ruin life if you get totally drowned in it. At the same time, routine is essential.I am not saying you shouldn’t have your routine. It is impossible to live without a routine. You need it, but don’t be drowned in it 100%. At least keep your nose above it! These are such occasions.

All the festivities are trying to tell you, ‘Come on, keep your nose above the routine.’ Unfortunately even festivities have become a routine! Time and again just wake up and see, life is more precious than me getting caught up in my routine and in other small things. Let me be useful to people. Let me spread some happiness.This thought we should take with us. What do you say?

Will you remember these two things? It shouldn’t just go out from the other side. What is it? When I feel helpless and weak I will pray, and when I feel strong I will feel thankful and grateful. That is also a prayer.

Questions & Answers

You should not go on saying, 'I am God, I am God'. People will put you in mental hospital. It is not a fact to announce. It is only an innermost realization.

There is nothing other than God. In this space, is there anything other than air or space? Air is in space, you are in space, I am in space, every cell in your body is in space. This is the realization.

Just know that nothing exists except that One thing, and that one thing is what I am, and what everybody is.

To feel and realize this, the heart has to blossom and that happens by singing. That is why when you sing, or when you dissolve in meditation, then what exists is only bliss and bliss is the nature of God!

When you are with truth, you are with God. When you are in a blissful state, you are in God.